Full On (5 page)

Russell was going to kill the bastard himself and put them all
out of their misery. The silence in his car as he drove to the police station
was deafening. He and Valerie had made great strides in repairing their
relationship, even said the words that should have been said months ago. Now
this. Shoved back into opposite corners. He prided himself on one thing only
right now—that he’d fought the instinct that compelled him to thrust a finger
in her face and say, “This is your doing.”

God only knew what was running through Valerie’s head right
now. He didn’t want to know unless it involved them personally. They each had a
job to do. She’d done hers as the law required. So had he. Now they had to do
it again. But this time things were going to be different. He wouldn’t do
without her again.

“I meant what I said,” he told her.

She closed the lighted visor she’d been using to repair her
hair and makeup. There wasn’t much she could do to disguise the fact they’d
been having sex. Their scents were all over each other. A fact that
inconveniently made him hard as hell.

“I love you,” he added. “I was going to tell you before all
this went down. I…” No, she didn’t need to know he’d planned to propose.
Considering what they were about to walk into, it’d be like playing dirty pool.

“I love you too.” Valerie retrieved a small brush from her
purse. “You need to do something with your hair before we go in. You look—”

“Well fucked?”

She gave a small laugh. “Deliciously so.” A heavy sigh
followed. “We have a job to do.”

“Then we do it.”

She clutched her purse in a tight grip, as if she were
afraid it’d fly off her lap as he pulled into a parking slot. “I’m not sure I
can. I’m not sure I want to.”

Russell cut the engine and covered her hands with his.
“You’re damn fine at what you do, sweetheart. Don’t let anyone or anything take
that away from you. The biggest mistake made in all this was separating
ourselves from each other. Never again.”

“Can we leave it all behind at the end of the day and go
home?”

“We can if we choose to. What happens in the courtroom stays
in the courtroom. Agreed?”

“I get mad at you.” She stared ahead, not at him.

“I get mad at you too. I understand that’s normal for
couples.”

She snickered. “There’s nothing normal about this.”

“We make rules and stick to them. Not unlike the lifestyle
we’ve chosen.”

“Is it really as simple as all that?”

“It’s as simple or as hard as we make it, honey.” Russell
caught her chin on the tip of his finger and turned her face his way. “We can
do this, because I sure as hell can’t do without you again.”

She met him halfway in a kiss that grew hungrier by the
second. They broke away at the same time.

“Fix your hair, stud. I need to grab my briefcase from your
trunk.”

“Grab mine too, please.” He passed her the keys and ran the
brush through his hair as she went to the rear.

“You are a sad man,” she said when he joined her. “This is
anal retentive, obsessive compulsive on a whole new level.” She waved her hand
toward the box of office supplies tucked in the corner.

“Look who’s talking.” He pointed to the equally large box
he’d pulled from her trunk hours before.

Valerie laughed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice. I’ve got
spare batteries too, if you need them.”

“Oh the images running through my head.”

“For the
camera
,” she said with a laugh.

“Uh-huh.” Russell closed the trunk with one hand and squeezed
her ass with the other.

“Someone will see,” she whispered.

“I don’t give a damn.” Still he put a respectful distance
between them and kept it there. It didn’t seem to matter. Reporters had camped
out at the entrance to the station. Camera lenses zoomed in. Microphones were
thrust their way. The cacophony of questions began. Russell and Valerie ignored
them all.

Inside wasn’t much better. Estavarez’s family members
huddled to one side. They stood as one when they saw Valerie. She went to them
without pause while Russell headed toward the inner sanctum and the glare of
the district attorney waiting beyond. One snippet of conversation reached
Russell. “He was with us all night. We have proof.” He glanced around in time
to see cell phones and cameras shoved in Valerie’s face.

“What the fuck, Russ.” Dave Deacon’s harsh whisper was
accompanied by a grip on Russell’s elbow.

“What the fuck indeed, Dave.” Russell glared at Dave’s hand.
Wisely the man let go.

He jerked his head toward the hallway and they headed toward
it. “You’re fucking her?” he asked the second they were there.

God, was it that apparent? Russell wouldn’t give him the
satisfaction of affirming the supposition, not without discussing it with
Valerie first. “How did you get that from us walking in the door together?”

“Because I saw you kissing her in the car,” he said through
clenched teeth.

So…that’s what puce looked like.

“Did you throw the case so your girlfriend would win?”

Now that pissed him off. “All these years. How in the hell
can you even suggest something like that? I do my job, Dave. Sometimes that
means working with the crap I was given in this case. It was all circumstantial
at best and we both know that. Valerie put together one hell of a case. Hell,
even I knew the man was not guilty.”

Puce faded to just plain red as embarrassment swept over
Dave. These were facts he couldn’t dispute. Then he lifted his chin, defiance
blaring from his eyes. Russell knew the look well. Dave was determined to have
the last word. “Then how do you explain this?”

“That’s what I’m here to find out. I presume the detectives
are ready?”

“They are.”

“Good.” Russell bypassed him and headed for the small
conference room down the hall.

Dave hurried after him. “The woman—”

He snapped up his hand, effectively halting the words. “I’d
like to hear it from them first this time.”
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool
me twice…
That’s what had happened in the Estavarez case. Russell had fed
into the bullshit evidence. Once in, he couldn’t back out. Maybe it was true
and Estavarez was a rapist. If so, this time Russell was determined to have the
evidence to back him up.

The detectives deigned to glance up when Russell walked in
with Dave hot on his heels. Mickey Jacks and Sean O’Connell. The vet and the
rookie. At least that’s how Russell always thought of them. One didn’t care
about rules and procedures. The other didn’t know enough about them to know any
better. One thing they had in common was their superior, know-it-all attitude.
Russell wasn’t in the mood for it tonight. Not that he ever had been.

“What have we got?” He slid his briefcase onto the table,
skidded out the metal chair and sat.

Jacks flipped open the case folder with the tip of his beefy
fingers. “Victim is twenty-five-year-old Caucasian female. Roommate called it
in. The apartment door was unlocked, bedroom trashed, victim was unconscious.”

“Photos?” Russell asked.

“Not yet. Still processing the scene. Rape kit and other
possible DNA evidence have been collected and are at the lab. Victim took a
hard blow to the back of her head. We don’t know if she fell or someone bashed
her. Vaginal and anal tearing. No semen. She’s still out cold. Doctors will
call if and when she comes around. Roommate says she encountered Estavarez at a
bar. Words were exchanged and victim scratched his face. Others in their
parties pulled the two apart. Ten guesses what he said to her to make her go
after him.”

“I don’t want guesses, Detective. I want evidence. Good,
solid evidence.”

Jacks’ lip curled. Russell stared him down. “What’s the
victim’s name?” he asked.

O’Connell shuffled through the papers. “Teri Trent.”

The name jolted through Russell. He kept a straight face,
his emotions in check. What were the odds that the woman causing Valerie so
much angst would be the victim? Had Estavarez done this to defend his savior?
How would he know? Valerie hadn’t even mentioned her name to Russell. But then,
she didn’t have to.

Did this have Bev’s name written all over it? She didn’t
tolerate the shenanigans Teri was trying to pull. Bev’s reputation for privacy
and discretion was paramount. Without it they were all at risk. But to go to
these lengths? Shit, he hated to think Bev could be that underhanded.

“You pulled him in based on the altercation at the bar?”
This wasn’t going to go well. Russell could see the train wreck coming.

“Of course we did,” Jacks snapped. “She still had skin and
blood under her nails.”

Russell tapped his fingers on the worn gray table. “Could it
possibly be from the rapist and not Estavarez?”

Jacks slapped the file closed. “One and the same.”

“Hmm.” Translation, fuck you. They were turning suppositions
into fact just as they’d done before. “Where did you pick him up?”

O’Connell cleared his throat. “His mother’s house.”

“Why arrest him instead of bring him in for questioning?”

Jacks’ sneer was back along with a snort. “Isn’t it
obvious?”

Not really. “How did you know he was at his mother’s?”

More red faces, glances to the side. This answer
was
obvious. They’d been sitting on him. Which meant they either knew he was guilty
or knew he wasn’t and didn’t care. Russell would pick at that thread later.

“We can arraign him tonight,” Dave had the balls to say.

Russell shook his head. “We don’t do a damn thing until I
talk to his attorney.”

“Make sure that’s all you do,” Dave mumbled, but it was loud
enough everyone heard.

Russell watched Jacks’ and O’Connell’s eyes bug out. He
quietly damned his boss. His chances of telling Valerie privately about this dwindled
by the second. His best bet was to keep the gossipmongers occupied until she
was ready. Fortunately, it wasn’t a long wait. Valerie arrived within ten
minutes, escorted by one of the uniforms.

No one stood. Equals and all that. Russell wasn’t fond of
that, especially since this was his woman. But he obeyed the protocol. She took
the remaining seat beside him and greeted them with a curt nod.

“Gentlemen.”

Jacks and O’Connell muttered a response. Their eyes were
riveted to her cleavage. Russell let them have their ogle. Valerie did have an
impressive set of tits. Anything to distract them. Apparently she thought so
too. He caught the extra dip as she sat, giving them a little more show. She
even squeezed her breasts together a little more with her upper arms as she
settled and kept them that way. He’d never been more proud. His only regret was
that Dave was sitting next to him and couldn’t be just as enthralled.

“Here’s the deal, gentlemen.” She flipped open her steno
pad. “At seven o’clock this evening, the victim approached my client at a bar,
called him a fucking rapist, then launched herself at him and gouged her
fingernails down his face. There are a least twenty witnesses who can verify
this plus surveillance video from the bar. That will also show that both
parties left immediately thereafter.”

She let the information sink in, then went on. “I can’t
speak for the victim, but my client was then taken to his mother’s home where a
surprise party had been planned on his behalf. There are time-stamped photos on
multiple devices documenting his presence at the party from the moment he
arrived until the two of you arrested him. At what point was he supposed to
have committed this crime? Why did you not review the photos prior to his
arrest? Or speak to those individuals who were clearly his alibis. Or talk with
the bar owner. Look at his surveillance tape. I also have several individuals
who saw the two of you outside the Estavarez home for a good portion of the
night.”

That tore their gazes from her chest. Neither had anything
to say, not that they could have spit words out through their sealed-tight
lips.

“Let Estavarez go.” Dave shoved to his feet. “Now. And I
mean
now
.”

“I’m not finished.” Valerie flipped her pad closed. “At his
family’s behest, Mr. Estavarez will be filing a civil suit against the
department for false arrest and harassment. I’m not sure a stalking charge
shouldn’t be added to that. Leave my client alone.”

Jacks leaned as close as the table allowed. “You’ll be
singing a different tune when the lab shows his DNA under her nails.”

Valerie wasn’t intimidated in the least. She stood and
hovered over the grizzled detective. “It’ll show she didn’t bother to wash her
hands after she attacked him at the bar. Maybe she was smart enough to do the
same with the man who raped her and we can finally find the man responsible for
these vicious attacks. We’ve wasted enough time as it is. He’s been lying low
all this time, being a good little man while he hoped Estavarez took the fall
for him. Well let me tell you, I will
not
tolerate that happening to my
client again. Neither will Casey Sullivan.”

Ah, the name to strike fear in the hearts of all. A
barracuda in civil lawsuits known to make mincemeat of her opponents.

Valerie’s smile screamed lethal intent of her own. Hardcore
enough to make their balls crawl inside their bellies. She would have made one
of hell of a Domme if she swung that way. “She’s in the waiting room now with
the Estavarez family.”

O’Connell snickered. “Now you’re joshing. They couldn’t
afford her.”

Valerie stared him down. “Detective O’Connell, let me assure
you I do not
josh
. Ms. Sullivan loves challenging pro bono work. And
she’s oh so anxious to talk to the two of you.” She slid her briefcase off the
table, gave them a nod and left the room.

“Release him,” Dave spit out. Was that sweat on his upper
lip?

“Since we’re done here…” Russell followed Valerie’s exit,
hoping to catch up to her.